‘Happy Face’ serial killer nearly confessed murders to teen daughter

Melissa G. Moore breakfast together with her father, Keith Jesperson, in a restaurant when he virtually uncovered his secret double life.

The highschool scholar, who was making ready to get her driver’s license, stumbled about getting her freedom. She was additionally excited to spend time together with her father, a truck driver who was divorced from Moore’s mom at the moment.

“I used to be about to show 16,” Moore recalled Fox Information Digital. “He made an unannounced go to and requested my brothers and sisters and me if we wished to go for breakfast earlier than the varsity began. My brothers and sisters had different obligations, so that they could not come to us … We spoke about what my first automotive could be. I keep in mind that he stated he would purchase a pontiac and I debated with him.

Researchers discover relations of ‘Comfortable Face’ Serial Killer’s final unknown sufferer in mission to determine her

Melissa G. Moore is the daughter of Keith Hunter Jesperson, referred to as the “Comfortable Face” serial killer. (Storm Santos)

“Then the topic started to show till the subsequent time I’d see him,” Moore shared. “He seemed ahead to seeing us throughout the summer time holidays. However the way in which he spoke, it sounded prefer it was Wishful Considering. … Then he began saying:” I’ve to let you know one thing, however you’ll inform the authorities. ” It stopped me.

Melissa G. Moore stated there have been indicators early that one thing was incorrect together with her father, Keith Jesperson. (AP Photograph/Don Ryan)

“At first I assumed,” It should be the rumors that my mom had instructed me about that he had been fired as a result of he had been stolen from his employer. ” Did he press on it and stated, “You can inform me.” He’s like: “No, no, I am unable to let you know.” I began to really feel sick in my abdomen.

“Trying again on that dialog, I really feel that he knew his crimes have been catching up with him.”

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“Comfortable Face” is impressed by the story of Melissa G. Moore. She wrote the autobiography ‘Shattered Silence’. (Paramount+)

Moore was 15 when Jesperson, a productive serial killer for drawing Smiley faces in letters on the media and prosecutors, was captured. The case is now the topic of a Paramount+ True-Crime drama, “Comfortable Face” with Analeigh Ashford and Dennis Quaid.

Moore beforehand shared her story in the most effective -selling memoirs, “Shattered Silence” and the Podcast “Comfortable Face” 2018.

Dennis Quaid and Melissa G. Moore Wonen Paramount +’s “Comfortable Face” New York Premiere at MetroGraph March 18, 2025 in New York Metropolis. (Theo Wargo/Getty Photos)

“I’m pleased with this sequence as a result of I believe the relations of victims will really feel seen, and that additionally applies to perpetrators household,” she defined. “I’ve by no means seen something like that. In case you have a look at a present a couple of serial killer, they won’t present the advanced nature of the relationships they’ve with their very own household.”

It is a Clark County Sheriff’s Workplace reserving photograph of serial killer Keith Jesperson, circa 1995. (AP photograph)

Moore described her childhood as “pretty regular” within the Washington countryside. Her father, who stood on a towering 6-foot-6, 300 kilos, labored as a long-distance automotive driver. Her mom stayed at house with the three kids of the couple.

“I grew up within the countryside the place we had the liberty to roam,” stated Moore. “When my father would come house from his lengthy -distance automotive, he was very fanatic. He was very candy.”

View: Comfortable Face Serial Killer admits that he killed an eighth sufferer in an interview with Florida officers

“He used to like biking and he all the time wished us kids with him,” she shared. “He was a really sensible father. He would learn us earlier than mattress. He would play video games with us. He would hang around with us as a lot as potential.”

Dennis Quaid as Keith Jesperson in “Comfortable Face”. (Katie Yu/Paramount+)

However there have been indicators that her house life was not so idyllic. Moore stated that when she was 5 years outdated, she witnessed ‘animal abuse on our property’.

“My father would kill animals for sport,” she defined. “He would kill cats. He would kill canines. That was one thing that, if a youngster … You simply really feel that that isn’t proper. Nevertheless it was not one thing that was actually mentioned. It was simply Keith like Keith. It’s not that we accepted it, however no person actually wished to acknowledge it.”

View: ‘Comfortable Face’ Ster Dennis Quaid displays on enjoying actual serial killer Keith Hunter Jesperson

Jesperson was arrested in 1995 on suspicion of the killing of his girlfriend within the state of Washington. He finally confessed that between 1990 and 1995 he killed eight girls in California, Washington, Oregon, Florida, Nebraska and Wyoming. The victims, who embrace his girlfriend, acquaintances and intercourse employees, have been sexually abused and strangled.

Keith Hunter Jesperson, 40, proper, listens to his lawyer, Tom Phelan, simply earlier than he pleads responsible for fees on October 18, 1995, within the Clark County courthouse in Vancouver, Wash. (AP Photograph/The Columbian, Troy Wayrynen)

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He was arrested simply earlier than Moore’s birthday.

“I came upon by way of my mom,” stated Moore. “Within the sequence it’s exactly depicted. I got here house from college and my mom known as us brothers and sisters collectively. She had one thing she needed to inform us. She instructed us all that our father was in jail and that he was accused of homicide. She gave no extra particulars.

View: ‘Comfortable Face’ Stars James Wolk and Tamera Tomakili when working with Dennis Quaid in Serial Killer Collection

“If an grownup seems to be again, I think about that … she most likely did not really feel comfy to debate these particulars with us.”

Melissa G. Moore has no relationship together with her father, Keith Jesperson. (Jesse Grant/Selection by way of Getty Photos)

Information shortly unfold in Moore’s hometown. Her mates described seeing Jesperson on TV whereas watching the information, carrying an orange jumpsuit and chained. He was known as the ‘Comfortable Face Killer’.

“I used to be surprised about going to high school and was embarrassed,” stated Moore. “Each time I turned on the TV, there was my father’s face, flashed over. My mates instructed me that their mother and father had seen the information, they usually did not need them to hang around with me.

For the sequence, Melissa G. Moore gave unread letters from her father. (Amy E. Value/SXSW Convention & AMP; festivals by way of Getty photographs)

“I internalized it,” Moore admitted. “I took it as if one thing may need been incorrect with me. Possibly the apple was not removed from the tree. It was the beginning of this deep descent to battle with my very own identification. I internalized his crimes in a manner that completed it with my very own identification.

Don Findlay (far proper), son of homicide sufferer Julie Ann Winningham, and Keith Jesperson (Orange Jumpsuit) earlier than conviction on December 19, 1995 within the Court docket County courthouse, in Vancouver, Wash. (AP Photograph/The Columbian, Jeremiah Coughlan)

“It took me years to reconcile,” added the 47-year-old.

These days, Jespers, 69, serves completely different lifelong sentences with out the opportunity of conditional launch.

“He by no means defined why,” stated Moore. “I’m nonetheless curious why he selected life that he did and selected to commit these crimes. I imagine he felt a deep uncertainty in himself and wished management. I’d say it was about energy and management. … it made this good monster.”

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Kate Maree as Melissa G. Moore and Dennis Quaid as Keith Jesperson in “Comfortable Face”. (Ed Aaquel/Paramount+)

Within the present, viewers will see a letter from Jesperson e -mailed to Moore. She stated the scene was correct.

“He has been written to me since he was getting into the jail, and [those letters] Go unanswered, “she stated.” I do not write it again. I gathered them, and I surrendered all of the letters to [executive producer] Jennifer Cacicio. She used the letters for dialogue within the sequence.

“Sadly, her home was one of many misplaced within the Californian fires. These letters have been burned. They’re his manner.”

Keith Jesperson was nicknamed the serial killer “Comfortable Face” as a result of he despatched letters to the media about his crimes, which he dedicated about state strains as a long-distance automotive, with a smiley face signature on the backside of every notice. (Okaloosa Sheriff’s Workplace)

Right now Moore has his circle of relatives. When sharing her story, Moore was capable of create a community of greater than 300 people who find themselves associated to murderers, with them on the cellphone and personally spoke for assist, Mensmagazine reported. She stated earlier BBC News That that challenge gave her ‘lifetime of life and path’.

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Over time, Melissa G. Moore linked contact with others who’re household of murderers and struggles to manage. (John Nacion/Selection by way of Getty Photos)

“I’m not pleased with who my father is, however I now not really feel the necessity to disguise,” stated Moore. “I now not attribute his crimes to who I’m as an individual. And I’m not the one one in coping with these distinctive issues. … There isn’t a assist group for perpetrators of perpetrators. There’s probably not a assist group for households of victims. We’re left to ourselves to seek out different folks like us.

Talking has additionally helped Moore to display her painful previous.

Melissa G. Moore stated she is now not afraid of sharing her story within the hope that it’ll assist others. (Jesse Grant/Selection by way of Getty Photos)

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“My father gave me my best sorrow, that is the trauma of rising up with him as a father,” she stated. “I’d say that the sequence is doing actually good job to indicate this deep need to have the daddy who now not exists, the daddy of my childhood. He’s now not right here. Possibly he by no means actually existed.”